Sonic Switch
by StarLion
Summary: When a previously unheard of oracle warns of an impending danger at the Master Emerald, the crew gather and bring the oracle along. Strange events ensue, and stranger still when they try to peice together what happens. Story now completed
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes:

Obligatory disclaimer - I don't own any of the Sonic characters, world, inhabitents and so on.

This story is now complete! Enjoy it in it's entirety.

This story also has a sequel - once you've read it, go looking for Sonic Switch 2: The Golem Wars.

And now, enough of my rambling, and on with the product of my creation!

* * *

"It looks fine to me. Sure you heard him alright?" Knuckles' voice was doubtful.

"Listen, I know what I heard. You don't like it, you go ask him."

"You know only you, Tails and Shadow can ever reach him, and Shadow isn't talking to you at the moment."

"Yeah, so? Tails already told him. They're gonna see if he'll come here."

"Just who is he exactly?"

"Dunno. Amy dug up the old legends about him, he's some kind of seer or something." Knuckles sighed. Sonic's carefree nature left a lot to be desired sometimes.

They stood and looked at the Master Emerald, resting as usual in it's place at the remains of the Angel Island shrine. Knuckles, in a fit of boredom, had started to put the shrine back together. Mostly so he wouldn't have to put up with being soaked on wet nights. Anything more interesting to do easily pulled him away from that though.

The Master Emerald turned slowly in place, bathing the surrounds in a faint green light. Every now and then, a brief pulse of light flickered within it's core.

"How's Rouge?" Sonic asked. Knuckles wasn't fazed by the question and gave a brief smile.

"She's fine. Off on one of her treasure hunts with that Omega. She hired out the Chaotix team to help out as well."

"Vector'll cut out a chunk of her treasure she won't like."

"She promised him his pick of it. She just likes finding the stuff I think."

"It's the thrill of it," a quiet, almost harsh voice said from behind them. "Just like you and running."

They turned to see Shadow leaning idly against one of the pillars, eyes closed. If Shadow had been the same colours as Sonic, it could be forgiven for not telling them apart.

"Weren't you with Tails?"

He grunted and opened his eyes, coming over. "He told me what you told him. I didn't go with him. He can see this oracle himself. Probably just an old fraud anyway." He paused, staring into the heart of the Emerald. Somehow it seemed to be calling to him. It always did, as if there was some kind of connection between them. "He also said to wait for him here. He's bringing this... oracle."

"Do you have to be so pessimistic?"

"Realist, Knuckles. I'm a realist, not a pessimist."

* * *

Tails was unusually irritated. Shadow had somewhat rudely refused to come along, making the journey up this blasted mountain more difficult than it had to be. He couldn't take the Tornado - not after the first time he'd tried where an unnatural storm had thrown him so far off course he almost crashed it.

The mountain's face seemed to be so sharp as to be almost vertical, with little to no ledges or hand holds. His tails ached from all the flying he'd had to do.

He grabbed a ledge, and grunting, he pulled himself up and paused for a break, sighing. Why did this kid stay up here in this inhospitable place? How did he get his food? Sonic had said there was nothing in the cavern except the boy and a lake.

His train of thought was interrupted by the mountain shaking violently again. The shaking had grown so bad, he had no choice but to leap and fly up for the next platform again.

Part way up he saw it; the cavern Sonic had described, an opening in the side of the mountain, with a slight reddish tinge to the otherwise drab grey mountainside. He pushed himself to get there, then once the shaking subsided, sat and rested, looking at the unique view. This part of the mountain was above the clouds, making for an impressive sight. It was unusually light, and clouds from the top always make for an impressive sight. He liked the sight, it was part of why he enjoyed flying the Tornado, he got to see sights like this often.

Then he heard it, a sound like that of waves playing on a lake's shore, coming from behind him - inside the cavern.

He went to investigate, and was surprised to find the red rock tunnel led to a large cavern, almost the same size as Angel Island. Water filled a bowl-like crater far below, and some of the red rock jutted out over it.

There was no one in sight.

"Hello?" Tails called hesitantly. His voice echoed back to him. "Oracle?"

No response. Nothing. He went to the jutting rock, and was about to peer down into the water, to see what was there, when-

"I would not do that. Many people have run in terror from what they see in this lake."

Tails turned, startled, to see a human boy, almost a teenager. He had black hair that came down to his shoulders, and a t-shirt, pants and trainers to match. Tails was struck with the odd notion that he resembled Shadow.

"I didn't..." he began.

"I can move quite silently if I need. It was not my intention to startle you." His voice was low, quiet and sounded like it carried far more years than he seemed to, his eyes backed this up. They were a frosty blue that was almost so white it couldn't be called blue, and they too carried the impression of great age.

He squatted by the nearest edge, and stared into the depths of the lake himself.

"I myself have never fully come to terms with what I see in here. These waters... they are special. It is said that when one looks into them, they look into you, and the reflection they create... it is you, but it is who you really are... who you are in your heart, they show. Your blue friend insisted on looking, and is possibly the bravest soul I have ever seen look into them."

"What did he see?"

"I don't know. The lake shows only the normal reflection of others who are also staring into it. Whatever he saw... clearly he did not like it, that much I sensed, but he did not show it."

Tails was torn. He was curious enough to see what it showed, but the warning he'd been given made him shy away.

"Sonic said you predicted something wrong with the Master Emerald?"

He nodded.

"What's going to happen to it?"

"That I do not know. I cannot predict all things, and I cannot see all things. It was difficult enough to feel that something is coming."

"Sonic wanted you to come back with me."

"I know. I cannot leave here that easily, however."

"You mean you just want to make sure no one peeks without you around."

"What I see in there, is a person I try very hard not to become. It's who I am, who my heart says I am, but I don't like it, and I don't want to be that way. You think Robotnic is bad?" Tails nodded. "What I see in there, makes him look like Sonic. That's why I warn people."

"Can't you block off this place then? Or do something to stop people coming?"

The boy smiled. "Of course. How do you think I leave here to find food?"

"I wondered about that, but how do you get down?"

"Come with me, and I'll show you, my young little friend. You'll witness something few people ever see."

As he walked off, Tails stopped him, calling, "Wait... don't you have a name?"

He stopped walking. "Many. Almost more than I have years. I've been called Oracle, the Dark Seer, Angel, Liam, Alex... many names."

"What's your real name then?"

"Liam. I have not actually used it for centuries, but it remains my true name."

Tails' mind reeled at the implications of how old this... man was, but followed as he was led down a second tunnel from beside the original one.

The rock here turned from red through purple, and then to a deep blue, and seemed to be more crystalline than rock. At the end there was...

"A dead end?"

"No." Liam reached out to a piece that was just a bit taller than him, a flat, vertical face. it looked almost like a door.

He ran his fingers around the edge of it, muttering under his breath, then took hold of a small knob of crystal that resembled a doorknob, and pulled.

"Woah." Tails was lost for words.

On the other side of the door was the grassy area near the bridge that led to Angel Island. He could see the island itself, the Master Emerald, Sonic, Knuckles, even Shadow was there.

"It's a little trick I picked up. I can make this door lead anywhere I want it to. The down side is, that once I step through, I cannot come back the same way. I have to make my own way back here."

"So I guess I gotta wait for you to go seal the entrance then?"

"That's part of the magic. If I step through, it gets taken care of for me." He sighed. "The old man I learned this trick from was most reluctant to give up the secret to me. It took me years to finally persuade him to tell me." He stared off into space for a few moments, then turned back to Tails. "Go ahead. If I go through first, you'll be stuck here."

Tails had an odd kind of wrenching feeling as he stepped through, and felt a bit nauseous, and a little dizzy, so much so that he almost stumbled into a rock.

"Easy. Let me help a moment." Liam put a hand to Tails' head, and closed his eyes, then the nausea, and the dizziness faded, and he felt refreshed as the hand retreated again.

"How'd you do that?"

"Why do you think some people once called me a Dark Wizard?"

"Magic?"

"In many forms. Come, you can introduce me to your friends. The ones I haven't met already, anyway."

* * *

Shadow turned sharply. He could tell there were others approaching, he had a knack for feeling it.

"They're here," he told them shortly.

Sonic turned, and grinned. As they drew close, he said, "Well if it ain't the oracle-boy and Tails. What kept ya?"

"The same thing that kept you from reaching me," Liam shrugged.

Shadow looked him over. He could feel something about this human, and he didn't like it. Knuckles looked wary of the newcomer too. _At least we agree on that_, Shadow thought to himself.

"You know everyone here, right?"

"I know _of_ them, Sonic. To know something, implies that I have met them. Which until now, I have not." He turned to Knuckles. "The last of the Echidna. I remember when this shrine was newly built. Long before your time, but I remember it still. Your ancestors would be proud of you, were they still around to say so."

Knuckles seemed to relax a bit at this. Shadow gave a faint 'hmph!' of disapproval. There was something about this stranger he really didn't like.

"I wouldn't, by the way. It wouldn't affect me. You'd do better to save your Chaos control for later."

Shadow showed no sign of surprise. "So what, you just think you can turn up and order us around?"

"I do not recall giving any of you 'orders' at all. I merely made you aware of what is to come, and Sonic asked me to be present. He is..." he broke off, and his expression changed to one of curiosity, then to a serious look. "It is happening. Even the rocks around us can tell."

Shadow was about to ask how he could tell, when the glow of the Master Emerald turned a sooty red, as did the Emerald itself. They all turned to look.

It's normal sedately slow turning had turned more rapid, and was almost so fast as to blur. the air around it. Only the core of it remained clearly green.

The red glow grew stronger, staining everything in the same colour.

Then the Emerald stopped entirely. There was the sound of a clink as it dropped from hovering just above it's place, onto the stone below.

There was a popping sound, as the green of the core faded, even as another green appeared nearby, within which a somewhat surprised looking Silver appeared. He tried to speak, but as with everyone else, he was unable to move.

The now red Master Emerald shattered, but not into many shards. Into four quarters, which seemed to dissolve before them. Only a small fragment of the red emerald remained, still glowing, in the socket in the ground that it normally hovered just over.

Silver was the first to recover. He felt the restriction preventing him from acting be lifted.

"What just happened?"

"Oh great. Another hunt for the Emerald's pieces." Knuckles sardonic comment clearly showed his dislike for having to do it yet again.

"It's not over yet," Liam warned them.

"What's left to happen?"

"I don't know. Something terrible. Something that will make it all the more difficult to recover from this. I don't know how long."

Silver looked hard at Liam. "I know you. You're the Dark Seer we're not meant to talk about."

Liam winced. "I wish people wouldn't call me that. There's nothing exactly Dark about me."

"I know how you're meant to work. You're meant to tell us something, aren't you?"

"It's not exactly a requirement... but some find it helps to have some idea of what to do."

"So do it once this is over then."

"There is time to do it before the last of this happens."

"What's stopping you?"

"Nothing, psychic. You had only to let them know about it, before I could do it. It'll be useful for you all anyway." He looked at each of them in turn. "Sonic... while speed is where you excel, speed will not help you after this. You must turn to using other means instead. You'll get your speed back after this is over," he added, seeing Sonic's worried look. "All of this is temporary.

"Tails, your mechanical skills will stay with you, but you must apply that mind of yours to learning a new skill, one that maybe you will only use a few times, but a necessary one.

"You, Knuckles, must be ready to accept that others can teach you what you need to be able to do, and not shy away from needing someone to do that.

"Shadow..." an odd look crossed Liam's face. "You'll learn many things. Try not to forget them, some are important. Silver already knows what I would tell him. He is a psychic, after all."

"Yeah," he replied, "But it doesn't make sense. Most of what you say doesn't."

"It becomes clear in time." He glanced down at the fragment. "You may want to sit down. It's about to happen."

Not to his surprise, no one else took his advice except Silver. Silver had seen in Liam's mind what was going to happen. He didn't like it. It meant losing his psychic abilities, even if only temporarily. They were what he did.

He also knew why Liam had said what he did to Knuckles. _That_ bothered him even more.

Then there was a flash of brilliant red light, and they all dropped to the ground, unconscious. Silver resisted it as long as possible, and could not believe what he saw happening before he too passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ugh. I feel weird. What just happened?_

_I can't feel my tails. Did something happen to them?_

_This is really strange. I'm sure I was stood next to Liam, but that's definitely Knuckles' foot I can see there._

_Wait... isn't this where Shadow was?_

_Why isn't anyone else moving?_

_Why can I see Shadow's feet?_

_Now I'm really worried. Why do I look like Shadow?_

* * *

_Ow... my head. I must have hit it when I fell._

_Strange. Knuckles' dreadlocks? I don't remember him falling on me._

_I can't feel anyone on me, either._

_What did Liam mean by 'other means'?_

_Hey... I look red. Like Knuckles._

_Maybe the glow? C'mon Sonic, think straight._

_Uh oh. My hands... those are Knuckles._

_What in the name of..._

* * *

_So, learn a lot will I? Looks like he wasn't wrong._

_He could have just told us this was going to happen._

_Actually..._

_Now I see it from his point of view, I see he couldn't..._

_How does he manage with all this..._

_Maybe I was too hasty in disliking him._

_So that's where Tails is now, is it?_

_Interesting. So that's why he said to save Chaos Control._

_I'm going to teach him my own speciality._

_Well, this is going to be interesting._

* * *

_Shadow's going to have a lot on his hands._

_They all are._

_It's a novelty to not have all that in my head for a change._

_It feels so quiet without it... so empty._

_I'm sorry to leave all that with you Shadow... I hope you'll manage._

_I hope Knuckles and Silver are okay... they'll have the hardest time._

* * *

_Silver? What are you doing in my head?_

_I had to warn you, Knuckles. Liam couldn't warn us about what's happening to us._

_What is happening to us?_

_If I understood what I saw in his mind... in order to sort this out, we're changing places._

_What do you mean, changing places? Talk sense._

_Let me put it this way, Echidna. In a moment, you'll wake up, and find yourself in my body._

_Seriously?_

_I saw it. You'll need to learn how to use my abilities. You need my help understanding them._

_What about you? Are you in my body?_

_No. I've got Sonic's. Knuckles... help me._

_Is something wrong with you?_

_You don't understand... I've always been a psychic. Now I'm here, I've lost all that._

_You teach them to me, and I'll help you get used to not having them._

_Thanks Knuckles._


	3. Chapter 3

Shadow, Knuckles and Liam.

Liam wasn't, because he knew what was going to happen. Tails might have landed on the ground hard, but there wasn't any injury. He felt fine, if a little strange as a two-tailed fox. He stood up, and gave the tails an experimental spin, taking off slightly. He landed quickly though, as he hadn't got the knack of it.

Knuckles was sat up in Silver's body. Silver too, had known what was going to happen, so was prepared for it. He was looking himself over, and realising just how different it was to be a hedgehog instead. He suddenly wondered who it was who had his body, and wondered if they'd had the same realisation as he was having.

Shadow hadn't got up yet. He was debating getting up and seeing what he actually looked like now, and trying not to think about a lot of the things Liam had left in his head when he left it for Tails' body.

Silver sat up and looked himself over. _At least I'm still a hedgehog_, he thought to himself. He shook his head a bit, grinned slightly, and tried to imitate Sonic at speed. He decided not to try it again when he fell back on his face. Obviously it wasn't as easy as it looked.

Sonic, on the other hand, was not getting up. He was sat looking bemused at his, or rather, Knuckles' body, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He glanced up when Silver fell, and chuckled to himself.

Tails looked very worried, which was an odd expression on Shadow's face. He took it better than everyone else, stood up and brushed himself off, looking around at everyone else, to make sure they were all safe. His concern also didn't seem right for Shadow either.

Sonic's natural good humour restored, he broke the silence.

"Someone wanna tell me what just happened, and who's who?" His easy going nature didn't sound right coming with Knuckles' voice.

"It was necessary," Liam told him, getting up. "To deal with this, we all needed to... change... and learn new skills. We'll all have to help each other."

"So you've got my body," Tails commented. "I didn't break anything did I?"

"No, your body's fine. Just strange. I'm used to being human."

"Well, I'm used to being a hedgehog, not human."

"Sorry Shadow. I didn't choose who went where."

"How on earth do you deal with all this?" He rubbed at his forehead as if he had a headache. "There's so much... I don't know, how do you even describe it?"

"Badly. It doesn't show, but badly. There are better ways to deal with it, but I'm a bit set in my ways."

Knuckles held his head in his hands. "My head hurts... and it sounds like someone roaring in there."

Silver sighed. "Come with me, I'll try to help."

"Hey, I'm comin' too. You're gonna need me to figure out running like I do."

"I guess that leaves us three to help each other out too," Tails looked himself over again. He wasn't sure what to make of being Shadow.

"Do I really sound like that?"

"Sure do. Seems odd hearing my own voice too."

Liam cocked his head to one side and looked at Shadow and Tails. "You teach me how to fly like you do, I'll help Shadow try to make sense of... everything, pretty much, and Shadow-"

"Can teach Chaos Control in his own time," Shadow finished. "I haven't even go the faintest clue how to teach someone."

"I've taught a few people. You might still have a few of my older memories lying around, maybe they'll help."

"You're serious. I have your memories?"

"Don't tell anyone Shadow, but I'm sneaking up on my seventh century. When you're that old, you can't exactly easily carry all your memories and everything around so well, so when I got moved to here, some of it got left behind. To tell you the truth, it's just as strange for me not to have it, than it probably is for you to have it." He glanced behind him. "And it's also going to take me a while to get used to have a tail..."

"Two tails."

"Having one at all is trouble enough for now, let alone two," he said with a slightly pained expression.

* * *

Meanwhile, a fair way away in a poorly hidden secret base of robots, run by none other than Eggman himself, Metal Sonic was having trouble coming to terms with what he was seeing, and neither could the doctor. Lacking the means to say anything, the doctor was in an unusually amicable mood.

"So it hit and got embedded in the east wall, did it?" When Metal Sonic nodded, the usual evil grin crossed his face. Clearly, another scheme. "So, if we can find the other four pieces, that means I control the Master Emerald."

Eggman paced around the piece of the Master Emerald, muttering to himself under his breath.

"Yes, yes, of course... and with those... and if they don't... and then it'll all be mine!"

Metal Sonic showed no reaction. He rarely did. When your expressions are limited to changing your eyes, it's hard to. It was another thing he envied Sonic for.

Eggman turned to him. "You'll find the other parts of this immediately if you don't want to be sent to the junk heap!"

_Here we go again_.


	4. Chapter 4

"Argh. How _do_ you deal with this?"

"Oh, stop complaining. You think it was easy for me when I first started dealing with it?"

"It's almost painful having all this there."

"You've got my help, which is more than I had. Just don't mess up the system I've got, otherwise it'll take me decades to get it sorted again."

"You mean there really is a system behind all this mess?"

Shadow was having trouble coming to terms with the sheer depth and seemingly infinite amounts of information, among other things, in Liam's head. Tails had chosen to keep clear and was running about just getting used to things again.

Liam sighed. "Think of it like a filing cabinet. That's how I see it in my mind's eye, and that's an invaluable way of interpreting it."

"Right, so what's in each part of it?"

"You mean what are the labels on it. Think hard, see it in your mind like I suggested, and you'll see my labels."

"That sounds insane."

"You're talking to someone several centuries old, and you're telling me what's insane?"

"I'm just saying it isn't going to work."

"It did for me. Concentrate. Close your eyes. I can do it without needing to, but you'll need time before you can do that."

Shadow concentrated, then drew in a sharp breath.

"I can see them. That's really strange."

"Easy. Don't disrupt your concentration. Each draw, you'll find, contains even more draws in itself."

"Over-sorted much?"

"There's more information in there than is in all of the libraries and computers of the world, and some of it exists only there. I keep it sorted so it doesn't get lost."

"So how do you find anything so quickly?"

"That comes with time. And I did make the system, of course. Don't try and over do it for now. Just get to grips with how it works. You'll get the hang of my filing system eventually, and after that, it you may even be able to call up anything whenever you want, without even having to think about it."

"There's some things I can't get into."

"What do they look like?"

"Dark. Black. They feel... unpleasant."

"Ah. Those."

"What are they?"

"Dangerous. Stay clear of them. Most of them you won't be able to use at all, let alone open. There's only a few you can open and use, but I strongly suggest steering clear of them at all costs."

"You've used these things?"

Liam sat in silence, staring out at the ocean. His expression turned serious, and unconsciously, his tails twitched with anxiety.

"I did once. I try to avoid it if at all possible. There was a time when I almost used them too much."

"What made you do it?"

"I had no choice. I was dying. People were hunting for me, everyone was out to get me. It was one of the darker chapters in my history. I went for nearly two months with little to no decent food before I finally gave in."

"You didn't eat?"

"It's hard to go into a store when you're a wanted man."

"That must have been terrible for you."

"There are worse things. When I used one of those 'Dark Files' as I've always seen them... it was one of the most powerful, and equally most dangerous ones. It was what started all the rumours about me being a Dark Seer or Wizard or being evil."

Shadow said nothing, but had a curious and also slightly disturbed look.

Liam saw it and continued. "I killed them. All of them. I unleashed it in anger, lashing out at everything and everyone that I hated, so it did more than I meant. But it didn't stop with just killing everyone in range.

"When I went to find out what I'd done, the people all stood there. At first I thought I'd just changed their minds, and they were now in awe of me, but when I reached the centre of a town, I had a terrifying realisation.

"They were dead, but not dead. Undead. Zombies, every one of them. And I had complete command over them. I had killed thousands, and turned them into my slaves. I was horrified at what I'd done."

"What happened to them?"

"I sent them away. They still exist, even now, and I still command them – well, you do, for now, anyway. But they're still around, waiting for a command. You know the cavern I keep watch over?"

Shadow nodded, "I think I saw some of your memories of it."

"What I see in there, is what I could become if I'd kept on using these darker powers, and hadn't been turned away by that incident. I've still had to use them on rare times, but I keep it to a minimum."

"Because you don't want to become what you see there."

Liam nodded gravely.

"You said I could command them?"

"Don't start thinking of what you could do with all of them. Commanding them is, in itself, one of those darker powers, and is equally as risky. Every time I use one, I face not just losing myself to what I saw, but something worse."

"Worse?"

"I don't want to talk about it. If you're really all that curious about it... have a look for yourself."

Tails stopped nearby, and glanced at each of them? "What's with the long faces?"

"Just talking about my past, and some of the more gloomy points."

"I thought you were talking with Sonic and Silver?" Shadow chimed in.

"I was. Knuckles got me to come over. Silver's having trouble helping him understand the psychic stuff, and Knuckles wants Liam's help."

"I've never actually used Psychic powers," Liam complained. "But I guess I'll give it a go. You should come too Shadow, I'll need my memories that you've still got."

"No trouble... Tails."

"Please don't do that, it's hard enough as it is without you calling me by your name."

Shadow grinned at him. "That's all right Tails – Shadow and I won't forget who we are, now, will we?"

"Why me...?"


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm telling you, it feels like my head's exploding."

"That's because you're not used to it, and you're not doing anything with it. If you'd just try to do something with it-"

"Well if you told me how, I would!"

"Just think of it happening, that's all there is to it."

Sonic leaned back and smiled. Some things never changed, like Knuckles' natural stubbornness. He and Silver had been tearing into each other almost constantly, and Silver was having trouble getting anything through to him.

A familiar shadow covered the ground next to where Sonic was lounging. Without thinking, he said, "Hey Tails."

"I wish you'd stop doing that."

"Sorry. Habit."

"How are you getting on?"

"I miss running, but I've nailed Knuckles already." He pointed over at some rubble. "That used to be a fair rock. Never smashed up anything like that before."

"Sounds like you're having fun."

"Kinda. Shadow- I mean Tails tell you what's happening?"

"Yeah. I didn't expect to find them this bad though."

"Aren't you meant to be able to see the future?"

Shadow joined them. "I've got that for now, and I haven't figured it out yet."

"Fair point." He got to his feet and stretched. "Wanna see another rock smashed?"

"Oh, Sonic," Liam sighed. "I guess we'd better try and help them."

"You're no fun."

"You're welcome to go smash one anyway."

"Yeah, but it's no fun if you can't show off to someone."

Silver threw himself to the ground shouting, "Duck!"

Sonic and Shadow ducked, Liam jumped, intending to fly over whatever it was instead.

There was a sound that was felt more than heard, and it felt like something sucking, and a strong wind at the same time.

Sonic kept still waiting for someone to say it was clear, and when Liam landed unsteadily nearby, he risked glancing up.

Nothing had changed.

Knuckles was rubbing at his head, and Silver looked confused.

Liam and Sonic exchanged a look, then joined them. Shadow hadn't risked getting up yet.

"So what were we ducking from?" he asked.

Silver was watching Knuckles in amazement. "It... was meant to be a sonic blast... but nothing happened?"

Liam cocked his head. "A sonic blast?"

"It was the only thing I could think of when I'm being taught by Sonic. Or someone looking like him. I tried not to hurt anyone."

Silver shook his head. "As far as I can tell, it didn't do anything except make a short burst of wind."

"I'm not so sure. I was flying above it. Against my better judgement; I still don't do it very well. It looked more like a massive burst of energy from above."

Sonic quietly left them to talk. It wasn't that he wasn't interested, just that he didn't understand. Silver and Liam had started talking about something complex again.

He missed being able to run faster than sound. It was what he did.

That said... it wasn't so bad being in Knuckles body. He liked the power he'd borrowed with it. He'd never been able to smash through things like this, or glide through the air. He didn't do that often though, like Liam, he hadn't got used to it.

Tails met him at the bottom of the steps that led up to where the Master Emerald usually was. It was strange looking at Shadow, and knowing that it was Tails.

"Hey Sonic, I got an idea?"

"You want to go around doing Shadow's job too now?"

"No. Do you remember what I said back on the space colony ARK, when Eggman was after the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Something about all the Emeralds giving off the same signals?"

"Close enough. I reckon I can track the pieces of the Master Emerald the same way."

"Sounds good. Think you can still do it?"

"Of course I can. Race you to my workshop!"

"Hey, no fair Tails, you're faster than I am now!"

He made up for it by using Knuckles' wall climbing ability, and they reached his workshop at the same time.

Tails' usual grin looked unusual on Shadow's face, but if Shadow would just smile more often...

Sonic leaned against a wall and took a breather. He'd pushed himself a little hard trying to keep up.

"You're too slow now."

"You gotta play fair, at least."

"Just making up for all those times you went running off on me."

"Eh, I guess you got me there."

* * *

Shadow had decided that since he didn't understand a lot of what Silver, Knuckles and Liam were talking about, he'd try to practice with Liam's system. Every so often, Liam would nudge him to look for something for him, once he'd done that, he went back to practicing.

The 'Dark Files' stuck out easily, and they seemed to be everywhere.

"Hey Shadow? What've I got on telekinetics and sonic blasts?"

Shadow sighed, and went looking. It took a few false starts, and mistakes before he found it.

"Nothing except a note saying they're only possible with a strong build up of energy," he supplied, and carried on looking.

Liam had said some of his memories were still in there too. It only took him a few moments to find them, as they were filed separately under 'memories'.

He glanced at brief scenes as he went through. Scenes of him, Sonic and the others. A scene of Amy visiting him recently. A lot of people he didn't recognise. Some of them seemed to look somehow... wrong. Not quite the same as people he knew. Human people, anyway.

There was a memory if him looking into the lake, but when he looked at the memory, Shadow was surprised to see not himself, not what Liam saw, but just Liam, exactly as he looked normally. What was there to run from, if that was all he saw?

He went further back. The image of the files seemed to show age the further back he went, but remained the same darkish yellow.

Then right near the far end – the start of his life, he reasoned – they turned bright yellow instead, still aged, but distinctly lighter in colour.

He wrestled with his curiosity for a few moments, then picked the first memory before they turned dark, and watched. Only, as he moved to watch, he was in the memory, acting it out.

He was in a makeshift wooden hut in some woods. He felt massively hungry, so much so it seemed almost to hurt, and very weary. It was dark outside, and he was clearly afraid.

There was a rustling sound outside, and he glanced up, looking around for the source through the gaps in the wood chunks that made up the hut.

There were people surrounding the hut. Like the humans he'd seen glancing through the memories, they didn't look right, as if they hadn't quite been formed right. To the memory, they were familiar; they were the residents of all the local villages, looking for him.

They shouted at him in a language that Shadow didn't recognise, much less understand, but he understood the implications they gave. They wanted blood.

He tried to hide as deep into one corner as he could, trying not to make any sound at all, but moved away sharply when he heard someone almost right behind him.

He felt something welling up. Something that felt unpleasant. Something dark.

The palms of his hands turned cold, and when he looked, they too had turned a darker shade. It spread, around his hands, and up his arms.

Whatever it was, it welled up, stronger, darker. The woods fell deathly silent. Even the people stopped.

And then it happened, the darkness burst from him in a vast release of energy, energy formed from all his anger and fear, his hatred and terror. It fed it, and made it more powerful.

Now the woods roared with a terrible wind, it stripped the leaves from the trees, it tore down plants, uprooted vegetables. The people were blown off their feet and away.

As quick as it had started, it stopped. Everything was silent again. Dead silent.

Shadow kept watching. A morbid curiosity egged him to find out what had happened next.

He left the makeshift hut, and gasped.

The people were gone. Everything left was dead. Dead trees, dead grass, dead plants, dead undergrowth. Even the leaves on the ground were just shadows of their living selves.

He trekked along a familiar route, the route to the village that used to be home. Everything along it was dead.

As he left the woods atop the hill he'd been hiding on, he looked down at the villages surrounding the base. They were still standing, but no one was moving.

Then he looked further.

The crops had died in the fields. Farm animals were laying dead on the ground. Even the forest on the far side of the villages, for a huge distance, was as dead as the one behind him.

Shaken, he nervously continued on his way. As he drew close, he had an odd feeling of dread. The people were just stood there, looking toward him. None of them moved.

There was something odd about them, but he couldn't tell anything wrong. Neither could Shadow.

He walked through the village, looking at each of them as he passed.

Then he reached the village centre, and stumbled back in shock, as the town's elder turned to look at him, and parts just... fell off.

Shadow pulled out of the memory and stopped watching. Those must have been the zombies that Liam mentioned. He was starting to regret finding out.

"Shadow?"

"Hm?"

"I asked if you could check for any cross references in that last file."

"Oh. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." He glanced back at the previous file, and checked. "No. There's nothing extra there."

Liam nodded and turned back to Knuckles. Silver had apparently wandered off while Shadow was looking at the memories.

He went looking through for anything to do with the 'Dark Files' to see what he could find out. Instead he found he was locked out of all but one file. He felt oddly apprehensive about reading it.

He read it anyway, and recoiled back from what he found out.

Everyone around noticed him recoiling.

"Are you alright?" Liam's concern was clear.

"I just saw something I probably shouldn't have."

Knuckles closed his eyes a moment, then when he reopened them, they were wide as if he was afraid. Not like him at all. "You looked at that?"

Shadow said nothing. Liam looked worried, but seemed to understand. "I put safeguards on those files when I found out what was going to happen. You weren't meant to see them."

"They didn't exactly stop me. I was just trying to understand you better."

"Just beware. You'll have unlocked every one of those darker files by reading that. Be careful what you do with them."

Knuckles drew back slightly. "He can use them?"

Liam nodded, "I'm hoping he never does though. They're still dangerous. Even to either of you."

"You use them, and you're in trouble," Knuckles warned.

Shadow ignored him, but not because he was used to threats. What he read was still bothering him. He doubted he'd forget it easily.


	6. Chapter 6

Silver was finding out what it was like to run at speed. It was oddly enjoyable to him, but he couldn't explain why.

He was running through the areas south of where Angel Island currently resided, looking for any sign of the emerald shard that had shot off in this direction.

Going by himself made him a little uneasy, but knowing that no one had ever caught Sonic, and that everyone else would assume he was Sonic, he knew he could always run from trouble and most likely be safe.

The forest he was running through slowly turned darker, despite it still being long before nightfall. Liam had warned him there was something here to be wary of, but he was certain this was the same direction the shard had gone.

Everything turned eerily dark, the forest turned from a living forest, to a dead forest, there was a chill in the air, and a stink of something dead and rotting.

An ancient village's remains creeped up over the horizon. More rapidly approaching than he was used to, but he was ready.

The village was a collection of empty wooden ruins, rotting away.

"Hm?"

A green glow up ahead. As he approached, he saw the source. It wasn't a piece of emerald.

"A marble fountain? In a wooden village?"

He slowed, stopped before it an looked.

The water was glowing the same green as the Master Emerald. It was split into two halves by a lower ledge, and there was a statue in the middle.

The stench grew stronger as he walked around the fountain, smelling more and more like a decaying corpse. When he reached the opposite side of the fountain, he bumped into someone.

"Uuundeeer," it groaned, drawing the word out. He looked up at... it, and wished he hadn't. It was half skeleton, half flesh, and all of a disturbing sight to see. It pointed at the fountain and repeated, this time clearer, "Undeerrr. Gooo under."

He fought a wave of revulsion trying to make him run. "Under the fountain?"

It nodded, losing a part of it's cheek. "Passssage. Find Passssage."

"A passage under the fountain. That's what you're trying to say?"

It nodded again, and shambled off. When it reached the edge of the area, it stopped, bent double, then seemed to just sink into the ground. There were no marks on the ground where it had been. As if it had never been there at all. Only the remains of the cheek on the ground proved that.

He ignored the wanting to run again, but was glad the foul reek had gone. He turned back to the fountain.

"How am I going to get underneath? There's no way I can move it myself."

He paced around it, thinking hard.

"The statue maybe?" It looked like some kind of grotesque imitation of a human. He checked the water warily. It didn't seem to do anything to him, so he waded through to the statue, and pushed. It didn't budge.

He made to move to the opposite side, to try it from there, and was surprised to find the water didn't react to him at all. It didn't even show any sign of being stepped in. His hands felt nothing at all, just the marble underneath. He kept moving, checking it all, and almost stumbled down steps he couldn't see, but were clearly there.

"An illusion?" he thought carefully for a moment, then stepped down and in.

There was a tunnel underneath. It had walls that looked like they were made of emeralds, glowing the same green as the Master Emerald. The zombie was waiting for him just ahead.

"Follow," it told him, and shambled off. Silver followed, trying not to notice the smell that returned.

Following the zombie though, he realised just how slow it was going... and just how much he wanted to get out and run already.

* * *

Sonic was mildly fascinated. To anyone else, it would look like Shadow had some impressive hidden technical skills.

Tails took every advantage of his borrowed body's ability, no doubt working a lot quicker than usual. It was like watching a black blur run around a machine.

Tails paused, and thought for a few moments.

"It's not going to work."

"What do you mean?"

"It's gonna need a Chaos Emerald to power it, and we don't have one."

"Doesn't Shadow always have one on him for his Chaos Control?"

"That's his though, I don't want to use it without him."

"I'm sure he won't mind. Besides, you're using his body without him. What's one more thing?"

Tails hesitated, then went back to work. Sonic grinned to himself. Shadow probably wouldn't mind, but he'd probably still object to not being asked about it. Sonic never missed a chance to pull Shadow's tail a little.

"Sonic?"

"What's up?"

"You don't need to supervise, you know."

"You asked me to come."

"I'm going to need a bit more room anyway. I don't know how big this thing is going to get before it works."

"Sure you're not just trying to get rid of me?" he teased.

From behind a pipe that had always been there – one that Sonic had never figured out the use for – Tails' head popped up. "I can manage. Don't worry about me."

"Alright, see ya later Tails."

Sonic left him to it. It was probably safer anyway, Tails sometimes got a little short tempered when he was working.

He was going to walk on back, but decided instead to give Knuckles' gliding a go again. His last attempt hadn't been bad, he just hadn't figured out how to steer in time.

This time though, he managed to glide fairly easily.

"This isn't so bad. Maybe I should think about finding some way to do this myself."

He looked down, to where Liam and Knuckles were sat talking animatedly. He couldn't see Silver or Shadow anywhere.

Then he realised something else.

He hadn't bothered to ask how to land.

* * *

"Seriously? You've never learned?"

"I know, seems strange, doesn't it?"

"Seven centuries, and you still haven't learned to swim?"

"I used to be afraid of water."

"What for?"

"Oh, tales I used to be told as a child. Things like bad children get washed out to sea, and eaten by sea monsters. We had all kinds of old tales like that."

Knuckles leaned back. He was starting to adjust, now he understood Silver's powers better. It wasn't so bad as he thought.

He looked up, and then sat up again in surprise. Liam noticed, and also glanced up. He stood up as if to do something.

"No," Knuckles stopped him. "Let me." He concentrated, and felt his mind build up the psychic power again. Then he focused, and released it, still keeping control of it.

A few moments later, Sonic, surrounded by a faint light, was landed, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Thanks," he said eventually.

Knuckles shook his head with a faint smile. "That's all right. You gave me something to practice on."

"I was doing fine at gliding though."

"Until you tried to land."

"It's harder than it looks," he quipped. "Tails had an idea."

"Oh?"

"He's building something that'll let him track the pieces of the Master Emerald."

"Useful."

"More than useful," Liam's eyes were thoughtful. "It'll save some time."

"There's something I've been meaning to ask."

"Go ahead. I'll try and answer it. Might be better to ask Shadow though."

"Well, who'll have to put the Master Emerald together again? Me or Knuckles?"

"Good question. I think you, but I could be wrong."

"Would Shadow be able to find out for sure?"

"Probably." He sighed as he said it.

"Something wrong?"

"I'm not used to being uncertain. Normally I know more than this, I can do more. It's a little bothersome knowing I can't do anything I usually do."

"At least it's not permanent."

"True. And I think I've got the hang of flying." He gave a short laugh. "It's also been a very long time since I was genuinely this young. I sometimes think I grew up too quick in my hurry to learn my village's magic."

"How come magic seems to common to you?"

"Oh, there was a ring of villages around the base of a hill, each of them had their own speciality in magic. Our village excelled at divination. Seeing the future," he added, seeing their blank look. "I wasn't actually a good student for it, but I learned enough to qualify to be called a true magic user, which was enough for me to be allowed to learn from the other villages. By the time I reached my sixteenth birthday, I knew magic from all of the villages. Except for one series of magic. The Forbidden Magics. The ones that caused me to be hunted, and the same ones that I used to save myself from them."

"Why'd you learn them if you knew they were forbidden?"

"Curiosity. I had a burning passion to learn everything there was to learn about magic, and that meant learning them. I thought I could be smart. I thought I could bring the one man who still knew them into the village – he wasn't meant to be there, because he'd been exiled for knowing them. I thought if I kept his presence secret, our meeting secret, and my learning them secret, no one would ever know."

"So what happened?"

"A villager recognised the old man. He went directly to the Chief, and he in turn caught me right after the old man had finished teaching me. He sentenced the old man to death, and I felt the same punishment everyone who knew the Forbidden Magics did – exile. Never to return on pain of execution. All of the villages were told about me." Liam sighed again, with regret clear in his voice. "They thought that because I was young, despite my magical prowess, I'd make an easy target. They made it worse by persuading all of the village Chiefs and Elders to put up a block, preventing all magic around all villages, and the hill they surrounded – Deadman's Hill, it was called. If I'd turned south and left for the Great Forest instead of the hill, maybe things would have turned out differently."

"There's one thing I don't understand about you still."

"What's that, Knuckles?"

"How come you still look so young, and live so long?"

Liam said nothing, but got up and walked to a nearby edge, and looked over the edge.

"It's not something I like to talk about. I shouldn't even have it."

"Have what?"

"The life force that sustains me. I'd prefer not talking about it. It's... not something I want to talk about."

Knuckles and Sonic exchanged a look. Knuckles shook his head.

Liam glanced back over his shoulder. "Don't think I didn't feel that, Knuckles."

Knuckles looked guilty.

"Heh. You got caught." Sonic chuckled.

"Since you seem to be having fun where you are, Sonic, maybe you'd like to help chase down one of the Emerald pieces then?" Liam arched an eyebrow at him. "Tails may be working on his machine for locating them, but I still know which direction each piece went in."

Knuckles treated Sonic to a grin of his own.

Sonic shuffled his feet and avoided their looks. "Aw man. Do I gotta?"

"Yes. You've adjusted. You know what you're looking for, and how to use your borrowed abilities. Silver did. True, he was a little uneasy about going alone, but he chose to do it."

"Oh, alright... which way?"

"Knuckles?"

"Gimme a moment." Knuckles closed his eyes, and concentrated. "South East. The remains of Eggman's first Egg Carrier, from when he was trying to use Chaos against us. I can feel robots there. One stronger than others, but I can't tell anything more than that."

"I don't remember Silver being able to do that."

"Liam gave me some help with it. He'll teach Silver too."

"Well, I guess I'll go have a look for you. Check up on Tails for me?"

"Only if you check with Shadow before you leave, he might be able to help some more."

"I dunno about Shadow helping, but I'll have a word."

* * *

Shadow had left everyone else alone, and was trying to make some sense out of things.

Liam had explained the anomaly with seeing the lake in his memory. It wouldn't show what Liam saw, because Shadow wasn't Liam, and it wouldn't show Shadow, because he was in Liam's body, and therefore showed Liam instead.

That was Liam's explanation. It didn't make much sense.

Neither did what Shadow had read about the 'Dark Files'. It had been written by Liam, which explained a lot.

He decided to leave it alone, and see if he could use some of Liam's other magic for himself, starting with the divination. Except seeing the present, instead of the future, because it hurt far less.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated, and focused on Silver. Instantly he got an image of Knuckles, who was still with Liam, and was helping Sonic land safely. Apparently, he had focused on the outward appearance, rather than the person. So he refocused on Sonic, and found Silver.

It looked like Silver was following a zombie through a tunnel made from emeralds. Shadow recognised the zombie. It was the village chief he'd seen in Liam's memory, except it looked a bit worse for wear. Silver himself looked equally bored and revolted. He tried briefly touching on Silver's mind.

_I know you're there Shadow,_ Silver's voice came back.

_Just checking up on you._

_Did Liam put you up to this?_

_No, I just thought I'd experiment. You look bored._

_I liked it better running. I can see why you and Sonic like it._ Shadow decided not to comment on that he didn't exactly share Sonic's like for speed.

_So why are you following that walking corpse?_

_It said to follow him. I think it's trying to show me something._

_Something useful, we can hope._

_Stop being a spoil-sport, Shadow._

_Excuse me for bothering you. I'll let you get on with putting up with putrid flesh there._

_Thanks,_ Silver's reply came, sarcastically, then the sense of Silver's mind was gone.

"Hey Shadow! Whatcha up to?" Even with Knuckles voice, there was no mistaking Sonic.

"Trying to make myself more useful. What do you want?"

"You're charming as ever. Liam's sent me after a chunk of the emerald. One on Eggman's old Egg Carrier. Knuckles said there was stuff there, and they both suggested I get you to have a look."

Shadow said nothing, closed his eyes, and concentrated again. He was vaguely aware of Sonic saying something, but ignored it; it'd only disrupt his concentration.

He found the Egg Carrier in the shallows not far from where they were. The deck seemed deserted, but he kept looking. There were Eggman robots inside. And inside the bridge, was a familiar robotic sight. One he'd never tackled himself, but he'd seen Sonic take it on.

Turning back to Sonic, who looked clearly irritated at being ignored, he told him about the robots, except the one on the bridge.

"Fun," he grinned. "Robots to destroy in a new way."

"There's something else."

"What's that?"

"Metal Sonic. He's on the bridge. He's got the emerald piece."

"Well I'll just have to take it from him then, won't I?"

"Don't get over-confident."

"I've never lost to that metal fake yet."

"You're not in your normal body though."

"I'm not gonna let him beat me anyway."

With his usual grin, he left running.

Shadow was about to go back to trying some more magic, when Tails appeared in a brief black and red blur. He felt homesick for his own body, seeing Tails command his abilities so easily.

"Shadow, I need a favour from you."

"What's that?"

"You know you've always got one of the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Of course."

"Well, I need to borrow it. I can't power the locator with it."

"You know where it is, why not just use it?"

"That's what Sonic said too, but I didn't want to just use it without telling you."

Shadow shrugged. "Go ahead. You'll have to use it without me once you know how to Chaos Control."

"Speaking of that, when are you going to teach me?"

"Whenever you're ready. I'm probably not the best teacher."

"Didn't Liam suggest something to help?"

"You really don't want to see his memories, Tails. Believe me, you really don't want to."

"Bad?"

"Unpleasant." Shadow looked at Tails for a few moments, then sighed. "Come on. I'll teach you my speciality. You know Sonic once did it?"

"When did you teach him?"

"I didn't. He must have picked it up spontaneously. It's how he survived Eggman trying to get rid of him up on ARK."

"He never mentioned it to me."

"Only he and Knuckles actually saw it. I felt it, but then I'm used to it."

"So how exactly does it work?"

"Painfully, if you do it wrong. I've always known. I think some knowledge I must have been given before I was ever aware of anything."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"That I woke up knowing how to Chaos Control, talk, run, and other useful skills? Not really."

"It would me. Knowing someone could just put something in my head like that."

Uncharacteristically, Shadow laughed. "It only worked before I was first awakened. There's no way it'd work now. You've got nothing to worry about. Now, take out the Chaos Emerald, and let me give you a hand."

* * *

The emerald tunnel led to an immense cavern. The zombie stopped just inside, and pointed, losing a bit of flesh from it's arm.

Silver looked over to where it pointed. There was a statue of brown stone on a plinth that resembled Chaos, as it had appeared before consuming any of the Chaos Emeralds. When he looked back at the zombie, it had vanished.

He looked around the rest of the cavern. There was no easy path to the statue – tall pillars of emerald stone rose up out of the darkness that was the bottom of the cavern, and there was too much distance between each one to-

No, they were just close enough. If he jumped and dashed, he should just be able to reach.

Silver grinned, despite the danger. He realised why Sonic was so carefree and reckless.

He ignored a momentary lapse of fear in favour of the recklessness he'd just discovered, and made his way over without missing a single one, laughing by the time he'd made it. Sonic's behaviour was getting infectious.

The statue's detail was clearer from here, though there wasn't much difference up close than there had been before. There was an inscription on the plinth.

"Psychic of speed, lay your hands within my own, and the path will be cleared," he read. "I fit that. I'm normally a psychic, and I've got the speed. Guess it means me." He reached out to the Chaos statue's hands, and put his own in them. "Here goes."

Nothing seemed to happen. He was about to remove his hands, when the entire cavern shook hard, as if in an earthquake. There was a grinding sound, and Silver glanced over his shoulder to see the pillars disintegrating, chunks falling down and vanishing out of sight.

He was tempted to remove his hands, but something told him to leave them there.

Water flowed in from the tunnel he'd come in by, stained green by all the emeralds making up the walls. It was more of a torrent than a flow, and it clearly hadn't come from the fountain – the fountain would have emptied by now.

There was no sign of the remains of the pillars, but the water was coming up the walls rapidly, and a glimmer of panic crept in, as the roar of it grew closer.

Then it stopped. The shaking, rumbling, roaring, it all stopped. The water wasn't far down from the hole with the stat-

The statue was gone. A pile of rubble lay around where it was, and the hole went back further.

And there behind, was the emerald shard.

"Great. I found it. Now how to get back?"

There was a splash behind him.

"Simple," a boyish voice replied. "Ask for a hand."


	7. Chapter 7

Metal Sonic stood on the bridge of the Egg Carrier. The Emerald Shard was before him, but his sensors showed it was giving off readings that didn't match the expected ones. He had sent word to Robotnic's command base, and was waiting for a response.

He circled the shard, and looked out over the deck of the Carrier, where the robots were now searching for useful parts.

Were not searching. They were the useful parts now.

He knew only one person who could do this, and inevitably did show up to do this.

"Sonic," he growled.

"You betcha," a voice came from behind him. It didn't match Sonic's. A quick search revealed it belonged to the Echidna, Knuckles. He'd never matched with Knuckles, but had seen him enough times. He turned to see confirmation of this match.

"You are not Sonic."

"Don't you believe it, metalhead."

"This is not possible. You are Knuckles."

"Nope. Whatcha see ain't whatcha got this time. Wanna try me, and see if ya can win this time?"

"I will not lose to the likes of you, Sonic or Knuckles!"

He launched himself at Knuckles, and made to slash into him, but he rolled aside too quickly, and Knuckles scored a solid blow on one arm, which disconnected with the force.

He turned sharply, and aimed the laser cannon in his chest.

Knuckles jumped over him before he could react, and he was pinned to the floor, unable to work up enough strength to throw off the Echidna.

"Gotcha again, slowcoach. How'd you keep coming back, huh?"

"I am repaired every time Sonic has critically damaged my systems."

"Yeah, whatever. So, d'ya reckon if I chucked you in the ocean, you'd still be repairable?"

"I do not."

"Well, what's gonna stop me from doing just that?"

Metal Sonic analysed the the way Knuckles was speaking, his inflections and the constant insults. It was Sonic. Unless Knuckles was up to something.

"I do not believe you would do that... Sonic."

"So ya admit I'm me now, huh? Well, I'm gonna deactivate you. And if Eggman ever finds you, you tell him I'm gonna keep on doing this. Gotta have some rival in the world."

"Shadow," he uttered.

"Yeah, I guess I could keep him too, but you've been around longer. See ya around, metal. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Metal Sonic's systems cut out.

* * *

_That was almost too easy. Still, old Metal's out again. And I've got the Emerald shard._

Sonic's thoughts were mixed. He was happy he'd beaten his old rival yet again, and secured the shard, but it'd also been so quick. Even before, he'd never beaten Metal Sonic that quickly.

Something strange was going on, he decided. Maybe Shadow or Liam would know.

He felt an odd sensation, like someone touching on his mind.

_Hey, Sonic? Are you alright?_ It sounded like Knuckles, and it sounded like he was in his head.

"Knuckles? Is that you?"

_Of course it's me, you think anyone else can sound like me while you've got my body?_

"Where are you?

_Still at Angel Island, of course. Shadow said there's something wrong, and you're in trouble. You need to get back here soon._

"No trouble, I'm on my way already."

He made sure there were no robots left, took the shard, and left. With a nagging feeling that maybe he was still in trouble. What had Shadow said? It wasn't like him to help Sonic out of trouble.

He shook his head clear of those thoughts, and set out back to the mainland.

* * *

Knuckles opened his eyes. "I've let him know. He's on the way back."

Liam nodded, and turned to Shadow. "You'll keep watch here?"

"Of course," he replied. "I hate to say it so bluntly, but until I've figured out your magic, I'm useless in this body."

Liam shrugged. "I can't help that. Keep an eye on things, Shadow. I've got a bad feeling about all this."

"Where are you headed? To the shard that went northwards?" Knuckles was already thinking of heading off on his own, a little apprehensive, but he felt ready.

"No, I'm going for the western desert. If Silver gets back, and I'm still out there, ask him if he wants to run on out to lend a hand – Tails too, if he feels up to it. I'm used to working alone, but I won't mind the company."

"Mind if I head after the northern one then?"

"Go ahead. Keep in touch with Shadow though."

"I know, I know. You watch yourself too."

Liam grinned, nodded, then set out toward the mountains in the distance.

Shadow turned to Knuckles. "Are you sure?"

"Don't you start too. I'll be fine. I just have to remember to use this stuff once in a while, instead of letting it build up."

"Do what Silver does – use it to float, use it for small things all the time."

"I haven't even fully got the hang of normal things."

"It'll be good practice then."

"True." Knuckles made to leave, then turned back. "Hey Shadow?"

"Yeah?"

"Loosen up. It wouldn't kill you to laugh or smile once in a while."

Shadow managed a faint smile as he left.

Knuckles wasn't entirely sure he was doing the right thing, going off alone, but everyone else was busy – Sonic was on the way back from the Egg Carrier, Tails was working on another of his useful machines and Silver was down in the southern forests. Shadow knew how to contact each of them now, and he knew how to do the same. They were both able to call on someone in a hurry if they needed.

He decided to take Shadow's advice, and try floating instead, and found it turned out to be a lot quicker than even running. Silver's body wasn't as fast as Sonic's or Shadow's, and wasn't as powerful as his own, but his borrowed mental powers more than made up for it.

North of Angel Island was the Mystic Ruins, a place he'd since discovered used to be a part of the Echidna civilization. There wasn't much left of it any longer, just a giant monument, but he paid it little attention. Angel Island was the shrine they'd created for the Master Emerald, and originally the Chaos Emeralds too, and it was his home. It was his responsibility.

It also needed rebuilding. As he floated over the top of the jungle growth, the leaves just underneath him rustling faintly as the psychic power shifted them slightly, he considered asking Silver to help out with the rebuilding. It'd mean he wouldn't have to worry about rain or storms so much.

Then again, it'd leave him bored again, which was the other main reason he'd started it.

He kept a close mental lock on the signal of the Emerald Shard. It was like having a radar in his head. He was good at telling where shards were, he'd tracked down the smaller shards twice before now, but that normally only worked in close range to the shards.

The terrain became more rocky, and it started to grow colder. He decided to experiment a bit, and tried making it warmer around himself as well as floating himself along. It took him a few tries to get it right without crashing to the ground, or overdoing the heat.

He checked the distance. It was going to be a long trip.

* * *

"Hmm..."

"And that hmm means?"

"It means I'm thinking, Vector. Don't bother me."

"Miss, it's cold here. Can't ya think any quicker?"

Rouge shot a look at Vector, and he sighed, and quieted down. He didn't like cold temperatures. Even Charmy had grabbed a thicker coat, which got in the way of flying, but warmth was better than flying freezing.

"Got it."

"Well?"

"It's a piece of a larger emerald."

"I coulda told you that already."

"Not just any emerald. The Master Emerald."

"Never heard of it."

"It's the controller for the power in the seven Chaos Emeralds, and normally resides on Angel Island," Espio whispered, just loud enough for them all to hear.

"Normally? What's it doing here then?"

"Who cares?" Rouge brushed the last of the snow off the shard. "I'd say it's mine now, but that Echidna will no doubt be a pain again. We're taking it back to them."

"Huh?" Charmy woke with a start. He'd been leaning against Vector's leg, dozing. Bees didn't like the cold, even with a thick coat. "We leaving finally?"

Rouge liked the young little bee. She smiled at him, "Yes, we're leaving for warmer places. You don't have to worry about the cold now."

Espio opened his eyes, and glanced around. "Something's here."

"Trouble?" Vector's eyes lit up. Anything to get warmer.

"No... it's gone now. I'm not sure what it was. We should leave before it returns."

"I agree with that, for sure!" Charmy was excitable as always.

* * *

Knuckles was roused from his half-doze. He glanced about, but nothing seemed wrong, he was still floating, still keeping himself warm. He'd started to get the hang of leaving them going without paying conscious attention.

He checked the Emerald shard.

It'd moved, and it'd moved a fair distance. It was still moving.

He nudged himself mentally on one side, and instantly turned to head directly for it's current location.

* * *

Shadow was worried. It wasn't being left behind that worried him. It was what he'd seen.

He'd never had a vision before, and it was slightly disturbing. He'd lost all his senses, everything had gone dark, and then he'd seen it.

He'd seen Sonic, laying unmoving on the ground somewhere not far from Tails' workshop.

He'd seen the shard, laying as if dropped.

He'd seen Amy, and seen her find them.

The shard had flashed red, like it had when all this had started, and then both had disappeared.

That was it. But he had a strong feeling, that whatever had happened to them, it wasn't going to leave them in a safe position.

He decided to check up on Sonic, to see what was happening, and found him.

Laying unmoving. Just like he'd seen.

Shadow hesitated for a moment, uncertain of what to do, then decided to take a risk, and translocate – Liam's fancy word for teleporting – himself directly to Sonic. A bit of magic he'd never even looked at until now.

He felt nauseous, as his vision blurred, a multicoloured strike of light, and then it cleared. He almost stumbled over, but he steadied himself against a tree he already knew was there – he'd seen it twice now.

Sonic was there, just like he'd seen, twice before.

"Huh? Who're you? What've you done to Knuckles?" Amy's voice.

"I'm Shadow. No time to explain, please, take my word for it. And don't touch that shard of the Master Emerald, it could be dangerous."

"What? You're making no sense!"

The emerald shard glowed. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh, what?"

"No time." Shadow concentrated, and risked another untried bit of magic, and created a shield around him, Amy and Sonic.

A shimmering blue barrier appeared around the three of them, and as the shard's red glow intensified, Shadow felt an immense power push against his shield. He wasn't prepared for it, and it shoved hard at the barrier, literally throwing them away. Amy screamed. Sonic fell from the ground he'd been on, onto the barrier itself. Shadow collapsed, but held strong, focusing on keeping the barrier intact. He'd have to worry about where they were going to land later.

They were hurled high, over land and water, and gaining speed. Shadow didn't even open his eyes. He didn't listen to Amy, or to Sonic waking up. He just concentrated, because he knew so long as he maintained the barrier, they wouldn't be separated, and they would be safe.

* * *

Silver looked around the cavern. He couldn't see anyone.

"Down here, silly."

He looked down. A light blue cat was leaning back in the water, grinning. His body and tail were striped black, and his eyes were a mischievous green. His back paws were hidden within swimming flippers, and he carried a bag on his back that must have been waterproofed, or had waterproofed items in.

"Who are you?"

"Aqua the tiger, the only cat who can swim anywhere in or under water. I've been waiting for ages for you, Silver."

"You know who I am?"

"'natchly," the cat grinned even wider. "Met an Oracle. Said I'd meet ya here. You look a bit different to how he described you. You're meant to be all white, and have psychic powers."

"Something happened. I'm only borrowing this body."

"If ya say so. I think it suits you. I saw you hopping over them posts, laughing about it. You like it there."

Silver gave an embarrassed grin, and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess I do. It's still not mine."

Aqua laughed, and the water around him seemed to somehow laugh with him, setting Silver more at ease with this stranger.

"C'mon in. I can show you the way out. And if you're after that thing behind you, stick it in this bag, it'll keep it safe." He slung the bag off his back, and threw it up to Silver, who opened it. It was empty. "Expecting something to be in it?"

"I don't know. Maybe." Aqua laughed again. "Just how old are you, Aqua?"

He sat up in the water, using his arms to keep afloat. "Now why'd ya wanna know a thing like that?"

"I was only asking."

"I'm ten. Aren't you done yet?"

Silver slipped the shard into the bag, zipped it up, and slung it over his own shoulders.

"Am now. So how do we get out?"

"Well, you start by jumping in, and grabbing hold of an arm. The guy I talked to said you'd pick up swimming easy."

Silver dived in, and then instantly regretted it. He forgot he couldn't swim.

Aqua sighed, dove headfirst into the water, and grabbed hold of Silver's hand, then pulled him back to the surface, where he gasped for air while Aqua grinned.

"He also told me you'd do that. Now why don't we leave?"

"How come you're not breathing hard?"

Aqua tilted his head, and revealed what looked like gills. "Got 'em from an accident. They say I'm a bit of a freak because I got 'em. Most cats don't really like them. I love them, I can go anywhere there's water. It's just hard to get the old fur dry afterwards."

"Alright. I think I've got the idea."

"Not yet you don't. The exit's underwater. You've gotta learn to swim first. And then you've gotta breath underwater."

"Which first?"

"The easier one. Breathing. I can breath underwater, so all you got to do, is take a breath right from me. Done it before, it's no trouble at all."

"What if I breath water?"

"I don't suggest it. You'll likely choke, and underwater, that could be a bit of a pain."

"And swimming?"

"Simple. You've got hold of my right arm. Keep hold of it with your left. With your right, reach out, and pull back. With your legs, just kick. Simple."

"And between both of us, we'll get out of here?"

"Yup! Ready to go?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," he replied, feeling a little seasick already. Aqua just laughed again.

* * *

Sonic woke with a start, and the wind rushing through his borrowed dreadlocks.

He was with Shadow and Amy – Amy? When did she get here? – in some kind of blue sphere, that could be seen through.

Amy was curled up, clearly scared. Shadow was concentrating hard on something. The sphere, he assumed. The shard was nowhere to be seen.

"Amy? Are you alright?"

"Huh? Knuckles? You're awake?"

"I'm not Knuckles... it's me, Sonic."

"What's with you... he said he was Shadow, and now you're Sonic?"

"He was telling the truth, and so am I. Shadow?"

Shadow didn't react.

"He's been ignoring me ever since that green emerald shard turned red."

"Hey, it did that right before I got knocked out!"

"So what's up with looking like Knuckles?"

"We got word something was gonna happen to the Master Emerald. When we all got there, with the guy who's normally got this body-" he jerked his head at Shadow, "- the whole thing glowed red, and shattered into four parts. Then we all ended up in other bodies."

"All? Others got affected too?"

Sonic nodded. "I've got Knuckles, Tails has Shadow's, Knuckles has Silver's, Shadow has Liam's, Silver has mine, and Liam has Tails."

"Who's Liam?"

"He's the one who warned us about the Master Emerald."

"So what's going on?"

"I don't know. Looks like we're heading pretty fast for that mountainside."

"How can you be so calm?"

Sonic tapped on the sphere. It made a thoinnng sound. "That, I'd say."

"But we're going so quick!"

"Shadow knows what he's doing." He glanced up at Shadow's face, contorted with concentration. "I think."

* * *

Shadow concentrated hard. He knew the mountainside was ahead, and he knew what it was. He'd glanced into a lake there in Liam's memory.

He started moving force to change their aim, but their speed was too great for him to have any effect on it.

He shifted it to aim directly for an opening. It was a familiar opening.

Once he was certain of the aim, he braced his mind for the shocks he knew he'd take.

They shot straight into the opening like a pinball down between the flippers, and bounced down the tunnel, each impact also hitting him.

They broke out into the central cavern, bouncing off walls. He deliberately remove the see-through part of the shield. He knew what would happen if they saw the lake.

Finally, he managed to get control enough to land them safely right before the red rock that jutted out over the water.

He dropped the shield, then staggered. He'd done a lot more than he was used to, and it hit hard.

Sonic moved to support him. "You alright?"

"No, I'm groaning like this for the fun of it," he retorted sarcastically. "Don't, whatever you do – either of you – look in the water."

"Why not?" Amy asked in her infuriating tone.

"I've heard things about it showing things people don't want to see."

Amy looked around. "I know this place. I came here a few days ago."

"What were you here for?"

"Oh... something," she grinned at Sonic, who looked uneasy. He had a fair idea of what kind of 'something' she'd asked Liam.

"How are we going to get down though?"

"I just dashed down the same way I went up. How did you get down?"

"Oh, he waved his hand, and then I was back at home," she said dismissively.

"I am not going to try that. I've done enough like that, thank you. There's another way down, which if you two will support me, I'll lead you to."

"Sure thing Shadow."

He led them to the crystalline cavern, with it's sapphire walls, and took them to the end.

"Now how does this thing work..." Shadow muttered to himself, and thought hard. "The place is in the frame. So where's the frame?"

Sonic and Amy exchanged a look, but said nothing. Shadow reached out, ran his fingers around an edge, and then pulled on the doorknob-crystal.

It opened to just beside the Master Emerald's plinth.

"Just as I thought. Shall we go?" he said brightly.

* * *

Liam was lost. He didn't like to admit it, but he was lost.

The desert wasn't overly hot, but it was dusty, and had very few landmarks – even from the air.

He muttered constantly to himself as he ran through the desert, looking for something – anything he could use.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered. "I never get lost."

He jumped and spun his twin tails to get a better view.

All that was different, was that he could see more.

"This is absolutely stupid. There's got to be something around here."

Over the sound of his grumbling, there was a sound like a jet engine above. He glanced up and saw one of Eggman's flying pods.

"So Tails, you thought you could steal this from me?" Eggman called down. Of course, he wasn't aware of what happened. Liam grinned briefly. He could have a little fun with Eggman.

"I won't let you get away with this, Eggman," he shouted, doing his best to sound like Tails.

"Just see if you can catch up!"

Liam grinned again. Eggman couldn't know that Liam didn't know where the Emerald Shard was, but if Liam prepared, Eggman would never know what happened. He'd just have to hope it worked.

_Knuckles, are you there?_

Silence.

_Shadow? Can you hear me?_

_I hear you Liam. What's up?_

_I need a little magical aid, if you think you can manage it._

_You're kidding me. I've just done a whole load, and now you want me to do more?_

_Really? What did you use?_

_Translocation followed by a shield. Which took a lot of impacts._

_Ouch._

_I've already said that. A lot._

_Well, I was going to ask you to do a bit of translocation – Eggman's here, and we're both trying to get to the emerald shard._

_Compared to translocating yourself, how easy is translocating someone, and something they've got?_

_Child's play. I hate having to do it to myself._

_Just let me know when._

_Keep watch, and you'll know._

_Alright. Be careful._

_I wish you'd stop telling me that. I know what I'm doing now. Watch and enjoy, Shadow._

He could have sworn Shadow somehow sent a thought of grinning back at him.

He made sure he was firmly on the ground, then kept up with Eggman, sometimes drawing just ahead, sometimes a little behind. He wanted to give Eggman the impression that he couldn't quite keep up.

"Is that all you've got?" Eggman snarled down. Evidently it was fooling him.

He spotted a green glow ahead, and sped up.

_Shadow, I'm going to need your help soon._

_I'm watching, don't worry._

He went full speed, and grabbed the shard.

"No! That's _my_ shard! Give it back!"

"Hey Eggman? See if you can keep up with this!" he yelled back. Shadow didn't miss a beat, and within moments, he was back at Angel Island with the shard, leaving Eggman to throw a childish fit. "Nice timing, Shadow."

"Yeah, whatever. Give me a few to recover from that." He was sat down, swaying slightly. Magic did that to those who weren't used to it.

"Are you alright?"

"I think I need to practice more. That took a lot out of me."

"Take a rest. I'll keep watch with you." He turned to Amy. "Nice to see you again."

"Hi Liam."

"Shadow told you already?"

"Sonic, actually."

"Did you talk to him like I suggested?"

"I kinda... forgot. I was surprised by finding out what happened to you all." She looked worried. "It is gonna go back to normal afterwards, right?"

Shadow looked up. "If it doesn't, I think I've found a way that'll put it right anyway."

"Don't use it," Liam warned. "It's not fully safe. But we can discuss that another time, tell me about your using my magic."


	8. Chapter 8

Omega was in standby mode. You could tell, he made absolutely no movements at all.

Rouge dropped onto the ground nearby, and tapped his body a few times. A few faint clicks and other motorized sounds indicated his 'waking up'.

Charmy landed on Omega's head, still shivering, closely followed by Espio, who landed perfectly on the ground with the sack containing the emerald shard.

Vector landed unceremoniously in a heap of snow, grumbling as he pulled himself out.

"Unknown presence detected," Omega announced.

"It's just the emerald shard, Omega."

"Negative. Other presence. Life form unrecognised."

"Well, don't worry about it. We're ready for anyone. So let's get this back to that Echidna before he thinks we stole it.

* * *

Knuckles wasn't dozing any more. He'd had various flying Eggman robots try to attack him. He flung them all away with a few thoughts, and out of habit, a wave of his hand. It wasn't necessary, but he did it anyway.

The emerald shard's location had changed considerably. It had dropped down a huge distance, and was headed right for him.

He ignored having to keep himself warmer in favour of boosting his speed a bit. He'd been cold before.

As he shot along through the landscape, he raised clouds of snow behind him, and left a trench where he'd been. There was a risk of causing an avalanche, but he was certain there was no one else around.

The shard was almost close enough that if he pushed downwards, he'd rise up enough to be able to see who, or what, was moving it over the snowy hills.

* * *

Silver was trying not to panic. It was hard to breath, even with Aqua's help.

They'd swum so far down, they'd found the bed of emerald pieces from the pillars. It was darker, but Aqua seemed to know where they were going.

Aqua passed him another breath as they went deeper. It was darker down here, and hard to see, but it was oddly warm.

A cavern in the side of the walls. It faded from the emeralds that made up the current cavern, to a purple colour. As they entered, it faded from there to an Onyx black, which gradually cut the light with it.

Aqua squeezed his hand. With no light, it was his way of signalling to breath.

They kept swimming for what seemed like an eternity. They angled upwards, or at least it seemed like it. Silver had lost sense of direction with the light, but he trusted Aqua.

Then they surfaced, still in darkness. Silver breathed hard, until he was breathing normally again. Aqua coughed a little, but sounded fine.

They could hear water lapping at the edges of something. There was a sound, a kind of tapping, slapping sound.

"Now what?" Silver finally managed.

"Don't panic. I just have to find the ledge."

"You've been here before?"

"Of course. It's how I got in to wait for you."

"The kid who told you about that. He wasn't called Liam, by any chance?"

"Yeah, why?"

"How'd you find him?"

"I didn't. He found me, actually. He got my attention with tuna. I like fish." He paused. The tapping increased. "Found it. Let me pull you up."

Silver felt a heave on his arm. Aqua had surprising strength. They both shook themselves mostly dry. Aqua had a lot more water in his fur though.

"Alright... so where to now."

"Oh, just follow my voice. There's a wall on either side of you, lean on them."

"So where does this come out?"

"A village just on the other side of Deadman's Hill."

"Deadman's Hill?"

"Yeah, don't ask. No one knows why it's called that."

"So is this village your one?"

"Nah, no chance. It's one of the dead villages. Like the one you came in by. Mine's just beyond Deadwood, on the shoreline. We're not going there though, once we reach the dead village, I've got something else to do before we go on."

"Oh?"

"Another thing Liam told me to do. Apparently it'll help us. Wish he'd explain more."

* * *

Knuckles was surprised by what he saw, and faltered slightly. He ended up tumbling directly into a snowbank, and rolling through until he hit something hard, cold, and sounded metallic.

"Unknown presence identified," a robotic voice announced. "Silver the Hedgehog."

Knuckles was helped back to his feet.

He'd hit Omega, and been helped up by Vector.

"Oh, it's you guys." Knuckles could feel the emerald shard. "So you're the ones who found it."

"If you think you're taking it from us, you're mistaken, mister!" Rouge's unmistakable voice rang sharply from behind him.

"Relax, bat-girl, I'm trying to help you. Again."

"Again? I've never seen you before."

"Oh yeah. You don't know what happened."

Rouge looked at him quizzically.

"Listen carefully, because I'm not going to repeat it. Something happened to the Master Emerald. There were others there with me when it happened, and whatever happened caused us all to change places. So I'm not Silver, I'm Knuckles."

They all stared at him sceptically, except for Omega, who had little choice in how he looked.

"I'm not kidding you, it happened!" They didn't change their expression. "Look, at least let me come along with you."

"I dunno," Vector finally said. "You sound kinda loopy to me."

"I think he might be telling the truth. Or at least, he doesn't have anything against us." Knuckles hoped they'd take Espio's comment seriously.

* * *

Tails made his way down to Angel Island, lost in thought. He'd finished the locator, and tested it, somehow finding five emerald Shards, not including the smaller one that remained.

One of them had seemed... odd, somehow. Familiar. Similar to the fake Chaos Emerald he'd made.

When he got there, Amy had dragged Sonic off to one side and was talking animatedly to him. Given his somewhat shy look, it was probably safe to assume she'd cornered him again, except this time he couldn't just run off.

Shadow seemed to be dozing, either that or doing something else the rest of them probably wouldn't understand. Liam's abilities all seemed to be like that.

Liam himself was closely examining an emerald shard, one that Tails had seen vanish, and reappear here. He looked up as Tails approached, but said nothing.

"I think someone's up to something."

"Oh?"

"There's five shards."

"I know, the fifth one is up there."

"No, I mean without that one."

Liam looked up again sharply. "That's impossible. There were definitely four shards when it split up."

"My locator says otherwise."

"Alright, so where's the fifth?"

"That's the thing; I'm not sure. One of them is still south of here, near the old Egg Carrier. You've got one of them there, another two were moving when I checked, and the last one is underground."

"I smell a rat," he said thoughtfully, jabbing Shadow with an elbow.

"Ow. What'd you do that for?"

"I need you a moment."

"You could have just said," Shadow grumbled. "I was listening, anyway. One of the shards is fake. The one Sonic found, I think."

"You think?"

"You know how inaccurate your predictions are. I'm just a little more inaccurate."

"Fair point. What about the underground one?"

"Eggman."

"Ah. I want to examine this fake one, I think."

"I wouldn't. If it's the same one I protected Amy and Sonic from, it's dangerous to touch."

"Not immediately," he disagreed.

Shadow closed his eyes, and thought for a few moments. Then he turned to Tails, "How well do you think you can pull off Chaos Control and warp from the fake shard to here?"

"I think I can do it."

"If you time it right, you should be able to drop it off at the foot of these steps, and get clear before it gets set off. Liam and I will warn off anyone else."

"Guess it's my turn to go get a shard now," Tails grinned at them, and dashed off.

Shadow sighed.

"Missing your own body?" Liam's voice had an odd tone.

"Tails seems to handle it almost better than I do."

"Maybe when this is over, he can teach you a few tricks with it then."

* * *

Eggman paced impatiently around his latest command centre's control room. Metal Sonic had gone offline. Of course, he was expecting this, he was just a decoy. It hadn't been necessary to tell him that, though.

He was impatient, because none of his robots had reported in. Sonic, most likely, he reasoned.

The sign that Metal Sonic had gone offline meant that they'd found the decoy, at least. It was designed to mimic the appearance, and drop Sonic, or whoever else retrieved it, into a holding cell.

The holding cells were empty though. Maybe it had malfunctioned? No, he was the world's greatest genius. It had to have worked.

His train of thought was interrupted by one of the many consoles beeping.

"Oho, isn't this an interesting find?" he murmured. "Sonic's walking right into a trap. And he even has a piece of the Master Emerald on him. You're making this too easy."

* * *

Light had started to return to the cavern that Aqua and Silver where following. It was a faint light, but enough that they could see again.

Silver had tuned out slightly, while Aqua had gone on about thing he'd seen and done underwater. He was reminded of the excitable Charmy bee, they both tended to go about things sometimes.

Aqua paused, and Silver almost walked into him.

"Something up?"

"I can smell something mechanical. Recently oiled."

"Smell?"

"All cats have good smelling senses," he shrugged.

"Maybe if I ran ahead, it'd trigger?"

"You could do, but what about me?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot."

"I think we should go on anyway. It doesn't seem like anything to worry about."

"If you're sure."

"No, but I can't tell. So we might as well."

No more than a few feet ahead, the floor dropped beneath them, dropping them neatly into a clearly pre-prepared cell. One of Eggman's ugly face logos adorned the floor, crossing under the bars, across the walkway between cells, and into the cell opposite, which was empty.

"Doesn't seem like anything to worry about?"

"So I was wrong. Told you I couldn't be sure. Someone's coming."

Sure enough, Eggman, grinning happily, walked in.

"So, Sonic, you've fallen straight into my trap!" He pulled out a remote, and pushed a few commands. A robot claw took the bag holding the Emerald Shard. "I'll relieve you of this now. I'm sure you don't mind!"

Silver heard Aqua growling quietly behind him. He ignored it, and thought hard.

Eggman clearly didn't know what had happened. Maybe it was time for a little more of Sonic to find it's way into him.

"You better watch out, Eggman. I'll be out of here and taking it back in no time."

"Oh, I don't think so, Sonic! This time, I have the upper hand."

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that, ya big egg!" Silver knew that would irritate him. It worked.

"Silence, fool! You'll see when I build Robotnicland, that you should never have opposed me." Eggman left, and Aqua stopped growling.

"So that's Eggman."

"You've never met him before?"

"I don't think it was worth it. He's just an old fat guy."

"I heard that," Eggman's voice called down to them. Aqua grinned.

"So how are you planning to get out?"

"I'm working on that."

* * *

Tails found the fake shard exactly where his locator had said it was; right on the path from the Egg Carrier. He knew the path, he often nicked parts from the Carrier for his own work. Despite everything else, Eggman did make decent machines, and Tails respected him at least for his technical skills.

"I can do this," he said, more to himself. He wasn't sure, but it helped reassure himself.

He took out Shadow's Chaos Emerald, and reached for the fake shard. He hesitated for a few moments, but continued.

"Chaos Control!"

He left, as a black and red blur at high speed. With a smaller green blur, slowly turning red.

The wind rushed past him even faster than when he'd been dashing. He was going so fast everything blurred past him.

He ignored the growing red glow of the shard, and held on. He knew where he was going, he just had trouble making it out.

The shrine blurred toward him. He dropped the shard close to the foot, and dropped out of his Chaos Controlled warp not far from Shadow, who looked up.

"Not bad," he said laconically. "I think you might even be able to do it yourself when you get back."

"Thanks."

"Any trouble?" Shadow asked conversationally, ignoring the small red explosion behind him. Liam was already moving to investigate.

"Nothing at all. Smiling suits you, by the way."

"You're not the first to tell me that."

"Maybe you should do it more often?"

"I wouldn't say that. Maybe just that I should try it a bit."

Liam returned.

"I give Robotnic credit. It's a good fake. But that's all it is."

"So what does it actually do?"

"It's some kind of basic translocator. I think, essentially, it's just a trap. It was probably meant to deliver whoever took it into his hands."

"That's a frightening thought."

"You know what I mean."

"Of course I-" Shadow broke off, and froze, his eyes distant.

Liam sighed. "I almost envy him."

"What's happening to him?"

"Oh, nothing bad. Just a randomly occurring vision of something, somewhere, somewhen. One of the advantages of growing up in a village of Seers. You get used to having visions at annoying times. There was a seer once who had one in the middle of a meal. Planted his face straight into his soup."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. There were stranger ones too."

Shadow shook his head, seeming to come back. "I think Silver needs a hand. I just saw him with someone I don't know, locked up in one of Eggman's cells."

"Guess it's my turn again then."

"Hey, you went and got your shard already. It's my turn," Tails objected.

"Oh alright then." He glanced over at Amy and Sonic. "I think they're going to be busy a while, now Amy's finally got him."

* * *

"Hey Knuckles?"

"What's up Charmy?"

"If you've got Silver's powers, can ya warm it up a bit? I'm freezing."

Knuckles sighed. He and Charmy had taken Omega's shoulders, while Espio and Rouge had commandeered Vector's. Vector and Omega could move through the snow easier.

He warmed up the air around them some more. He'd tried melting the snow, but it hadn't worked.

Well, it had. It just caused a small avalanche.

Well, more of a fair sized one, that caused a river at the bottom to rise a bit, and dumped the six of them straight into the icy cold water.

Espio, with his usual taciturn silence, had said nothing, and just shook himself dry. Vector didn't care much, except that he was colder. Rouge avoided getting wet, but only just. Charmy had complained about being wet and cold.

After that, they'd decided it wasn't such a good idea.

Knuckles had helped, by somehow persuading the water on each of them to not be on them. Even he wasn't fully sure how he'd done it, but it'd dried them off.

Rouge shivered. "How much longer to we have to put up with this?"

"Don't you start complaining too," Vector replied.

"I'm not complaining."

Knuckles smiled faintly at their banter. If nothing else, it kept them warmer.

He toyed with a few ideas while they went along. He remembered that on his way there, he'd carved a small valley out of the snow because he went too close. That was probably because he'd been moving himself along by force.

So what if he forced a path through the snow?

They were on relatively flat land, so...

"Mind if I try something?" he asked.

"Is it going to make it warmer, or quicker?" Rouge asked.

"Will it dump us in water again?" Charmy added.

"No, yes and no," he replied. No one seemed to object, so he dropped down in front of them, and concentrated. He put forth his mind's power into force, and forced it to shift a channel of snow aside.

It worked, and the channel went on for some distance. He'd forgotten an early lesson Silver had given him though, and that was to brace yourself for the force coming back again.

He was flung, again, into a snowdrift.

At least the snow didn't show up so easily on him, he thought, as Vector pulled him out again, laughing hard.


	9. Chapter 9

Aqua lounged in a corner of their cell, curled up the way only cats seem to manage. Silver was pacing around, still thinking.

He didn't bother Silver. He'd never been big on planning things out.

A new scent touched his nose, and he sat up, sniffing.

"Someone new coming," he announced.

"Hm?"

"I said, there's someone I don't recognise coming."

"Oh." Silver thought some more. "Who?"

Aqua stared at him.

"Oh yeah. Don't recognise. Sorry, was miles away."

"I can tell."

There were some creaks, a distant yelp of pain, some typically Eggman evil laughter, and then the ceiling of the cell opposite them swung down, depositing a black and red hedgehog into it, then the ceiling closed again. It seemed unusual that Silver and this hedgehog looked so alike.

Silver seemed to recognise him, too.

"Tails? What happened to you?"

"I thought I'd come help you out, and nick the emerald shard Eggman's got."

"Was that part of you plan?" he indicated the cell.

"I made a mistake and got caught." Tails spotted Aqua. "Who's your friend?"

"Aqua. He's a tiger. He helped me get out from where I found my shard. There was just a bit of water there."

"Just a bit? You call that, just a bit? It was enough to almost cut all the light out."

"Yeah, just a bit. Hardly anything to worry about."

Tails laughed, "You're sounding more and more like Sonic."

"My little cat here tells me it suits me."

"Who was laughing about almost falling off those pillars to a painful end earlier?" Aqua asked.

"What's this almost falling off? I made them all perfectly. Nothing to it."

* * *

"Alright. Try it now."

Liam examined the fake shard again, prodding it a few times. It didn't react.

"That's got it. Thanks Shadow."

"You know, I think I'm getting the hang of your magic."

"Simple once you realise how it works, isn't it?"

"Not all of it."

"Oh, of course it is. You take raw magic, filter it through your mind into what you want it to do, and unleash it."

"Isn't that the same thing Silver told Knuckles?"

"Psychic powers work in much the same way. It just uses raw mental power instead of raw magic."

"Maybe you should teach some people how to use magic again. Bring it back to the world."

"I considered it a few times. I eventually decided against it. Too many risks to match the benefits." Liam hit the shard with a rock. It had no effect. Shadow took the rock from him, and smashed the shard for him. "Thanks."

"Not as strong there, are you?"

"I don't mind it too much. I got the chance to go back to youth, even if it's just Tails' youth borrowed."

Knuckles dropped down in front of them, hanging upside down.

"Mind if I drop in?"

"And us too!" Charmy and Rouge landed nearby.

"What are you two doing here?" Shadow asked.

"Knuckles found us, and we found the emerald shard you're missing."

"So where is it?"

"Espio has it. He, Vector and Omega are still on the way, we flew on ahead to find you."

Shadow almost got to reply, when everything went cold and dark again. He could see Liam's point about visions happening at irritating or inconvenient times.

When his sight cleared, he saw himself. Well, Tails in his body.

Tails seemed to be in some kind of cell, and just opposite, Sonic. Silver, of course. And someone else. Liam's memories supplied that it was a young tiger, Aqua, who'd been accidentally caught by the side effects of Liam's magic when younger, and had grown gills.

They seemed to be talking, though Shadow couldn't hear what. It also seemed to be the present, not the future this time, though he couldn't quite place how he knew this.

Then it cleared again, and he saw normally. Everyone was watching him, Liam with a curious look.

"Tails and Silver need a helping hand. I think I'll help them this time."

"Both of them? What happened to them?"

"I think Eggman got them both. They're in cells of his, at least."

Liam sighed.

"I'll keep watch for you, Shadow." Knuckles laid a hand on his shoulder. "You go ahead, if you're sure you can do it."

"Of course I'm sure." He translocated himself to a place above ground, near to where he thought the vision had been, and instantly regretted it. He forgot how nauseous it made him.

When his head cleared, he looked around. He recognised exactly where he was.

Deadman's Hill. The remains of the small hut he'd been in, in the memory earlier, weere still here. Rotting, and falling apart, but still there.

Clearly, nothing had changed much since that memory. Everything was still clearly dead. It gave a haunted quality to the area.

What didn't fit in though, was an unusually lighter coloured tree. Shadow tapped it, and it made a metallic sound. When he pushed it, it fell over, revealing a tunnel entrance, the walls of which had a very familiar stylized face on it. Eggman clearly hadn't gotten any better at hiding his bases.

The alarm was triggered as he entered, but he ignored it. He already knew what he was going to do.

The tunnel opened into a larger room, already filled with guard robots awaiting his arrival.

"Stop where you are," one announced over the din of all their engines and other noises.

"Looking for me?" Shadow asked innocently. "I'm sure I have something for you." He held out the palm of his hand, concentrated briefly, and lightning arced from it, to the nearest robot, and formed a chain reaction to all of the others. In a few moments, they all lay inactive, electronics fried.

Shadow walked over them nonchalantly, humming tunelessly as he went. He knew where he was going, Eggman was nothing if not predictable.

The door, of course, was locked, but a fireball from the other hand melted it out of his path. He could get to like magic, he decided.

He left a trail of chaos behind him, completely ignoring the security alarms, and almost happily eliminating whatever threat arose, almost before it did so.

In the distance, he heard someone throwing a childish temper, and smiled. Eggman had finally found out what was going on.

He headed for it, still humming, still completely at ease, and still throwing magic around. Always making sure he avoided the dark magic, just in case. He doubted he'd need it.

He found the command room in complete disarray, with Eggman shouting orders all over the place. Shadow silenced him with yet more magic, dealt with the rest of the room, then turned back to him.

"Eggman. What a surprise to see you here."

Eggman tried to say something, but was still influenced by the silence.

"No, don't say anything. I know how you like to keep that voice of yours safe."

Eggman glared, and punched at random commands, probably hoping to summon some kind of help. Shadow already knew what was going to happen. He'd left one of Eggman's robots intact and working in preparation.

The two shards of the Master Emerald were held by a pair of grasping claws.

"Ah, I see you kept the shards safe for me. How nice of you. I'll relieve you of them now. I'm sure you don't mind."

Eggman's punching commands grew more frantic, as he watched the two shards release themselves, and float down to Shadow.

Metal Sonic, repaired since his meeting with Sonic, entered the room.

"Stop where you are," he commanded.

Shadow grinned. His little plan was working exactly as he expected.

"Oh, there you are. I was beginning to think you'd got lost."

Metal Sonic and Eggman both seemed to be confused.

"I thought I'd just leave you both with a parting gift. On behalf of me, Shadow, Sonic, and all their friends." He unleashed the magic he had ready, passing it through Eggman, then Metal Sonic, then the guard robot and back to Eggman. Then he left it to work, and went off in search of Silver, Aqua and Tails.

* * *

Metal Sonic had blanked out. He was clearly still active, but something was wrong. Eggman could tell that much. The odd light the boy had hurled at them blinded him temporarily, then when it cleared, he was looking at himself, and a guard robot.

Wait, himself?

Something wasn't right.

He looked down.

He wasn't surprised when Metal Sonic's voice rang out with his yells.

On his right, the guard robot got up. It connected to him, as he'd made all his robots able to communicate as such.

"What are you doing in my body?" it asked.

"Your body? You're Metal Sonic? So who..." they both looked at Eggman's body.

"Oh no," they both echoed each other.

* * *

Silver and Tails exchanged a look. They'd heard all kinds of noises, but the laughter that was coming closer neither of them recognised. It wasn't Eggman, for sure.

Then Shadow wandered down the stairs, and stopped, looking at each of them in turn.

"Liam!" Aqua called.

"Ah, not quite," he replied. "Liam's actually somewhere else, I'm borrowing his body."

"Like Silver is Sonic's? And Tails is Shadow's?"

"Just like that." He glanced at Tails. "How did you manage to get caught with my body?"

Tails shifted from foot to foot guiltily. "I made a mistake."

Shadow laughed again, and shook his head. "No harm done. Why are you still in the cells?"

"The bars kind of make it difficult to get out, you know."

"Why, so they do? Why don't I do something about that?"

The bars abruptly lost their shine, and seemed to collapse into a pile of dust. Aqua touched a paw to it, then licked.

"Sugar?"

"Well, I had to change it to something safe, didn't I?"

"Why not tuna?"

"Because I'd never be able to pull you away then, would I? I've got the two shards. Why don't we all head back?"

"Are you going to do that disappearing thing, and reappear where we're going?"

"Why not?"

* * *

Knuckles and Liam were examining the remains of the fake shard. It was filled with all kinds of odd technology.

"Do you know what any of it is?"

"Me? I just guard the Master Emerald. What do you know of it?"

"I have no idea. We'll have to wait until Shadow gets back."

"Or Tails. He'd know what this is too."

"True."

"They're on the way back."

"How do you know?"

"Shadow just told me. That, and I can feel the presence of magic again, which means he's not far away."

"Or right behind you," a voice broke in brightly.

"You almost startled the life out of me Shadow." Liam turned. "Well, someone's in a good mood."

"Oh, I just decided it was more interesting to have a little fun with Eggman. Don't worry, I didn't do anything permanent to him. Well, nothing that he won't be able to undo, anyway. Eventually."

"The shards?"

"I just gave them to Sonic."

"Why Sonic?"

"Sonic's in Knuckles' body, which makes him the Guardian, so he's the one who has to put it back together again."

"I guess that answers that question," Knuckles said to no one in particular. "What happens then?"

"When he puts it back together? I think we all go back to normal."

They all looked over to the foot of the stairs leading to the top of the shrine. Sonic was there, evidently trying to figure out how to reassemble the Master Emerald. Amy was sat watching, not far away. Aqua had curled up nearby, and was enjoying having his ears scratched. Obviously she liked him.

"I guess I should help him out. I've had to do it twice before."

Tails and Silver joined them after Knuckles left. He, Liam and Shadow sat watching Sonic and Knuckles.

"Does this mean it's over?" Silver asked.

"Oh, not yet. We still all have to be present when Sonic finishes with the Master Emerald, I think."

"Oh good. I think I'm going to go enjoy myself some more while we wait." Silver dashed off again.

"I think he liked being Sonic," Tails commented.

"Like you do me, you mean?" Shadow grinned slyly.

"Good point. I think I'll give him a good race." Tails went after Silver.

"You know, much as I liked using your magic, I think I could do better without it."

"It's not so bad really, is it?"

"No. Just got to watch out for those dark ones."

"And the inconvenient visions."

Liam laughed. "Oh yes. Always dropping in when you least expect them."

"How about you?"

"Hm? Oh, I think I've had my share of being this young over again. Maybe sometime I'll see if I can finally get the hang of transformation magic, and pretend to be Tails again sometime."

"I thought you couldn't use that kind of magic on yourself?"

"Oh, there are limits, but I'm always trying to push back those limits. Always looking for new ways to use it. It helps pass the boring years when there's nothing much to do except sit in that cavern and warn people."

"You ought to get out more."

"I do get out a lot. It's not like I have my own grocery store up there, you know."

"I've been meaning to ask you about your cavern actually. It's magic itself, isn't it?"

"It took you that long to figure it out?"

"So, couldn't you just move it to another rock face?"

"One more easily accessible, so you can all come visit more often?"

"Why not?"

"What about the lake?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"Thanks."

"No charge."

* * *

Sonic slotted the last piece into place. The only thing missing now was the bottom of it.

"I think that's it. Almost it, anyway."

"I'll go get the others. You take it on up. Be careful with it."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't wanna make it worse."

Knuckles watched Sonic shift the Master Emerald. He decided instead of wandering around looking for everyone, he'd make use of the Psychic powers one last time, and let everyone know that way.

Only Silver actually responded.

_Going to miss being able to do this?_

_Maybe a bit. But Liam said everyone has access to it, they just have to unlock it._

_You'll have to practice hard to get up to my level._

_What else have I got to do? I sit around all the time waiting for something to break the Master Emerald again._

_Fair enough. Maybe I'll stop by sometime and help out._

* * *

Silver and Tails stopped outside Tails' workshop.

"I'm going to miss being able to do that," he told Tails.

"So am I. It's kind of fun."

"I know. I can see why Sonic's the way he is."

"You've been acting a lot like him, you know."

"I know, it's hard not to. He's contagious."

"We better head back."

"Race you there?"

"You're on!"

* * *

Sonic waited at the top of the shrine. Shadow was first to arrive. Shadow was clearly in an unusually good mood. Maybe he'd smile or laugh more often now.

Liam came in next, dropping down from flying somewhat unsteadily. He still hadn't managed to get the hang of it.

Knuckles had already wandered up, and was floating nearby. It was slightly odd, watching him lean on empty air.

Twin blurs shot in on either side of him, and Silver and Tails finally showed up, both sporting matching grins.

Liam looked round. Everyone except Sonic was sat down, or leaning against something, to be ready for it this time. "Alright," he said finally. "We're all here. Go ahead Sonic. Whenever you're ready."

He dropped the Master Emerald onto the last piece, and it reattached with a click. It rose up, started spinning, and it's glow returned, bathing them all in it's light. Sonic quickly sat down as he felt it take hold, and start returning them to their right bodies.

It had been an interesting adventure, he decided. Maybe if Knuckles wanted a change, they could get Liam to do something, and he'd look after the emerald so Knuckles could go out and do things without having to worry.

_Don't think it isn't tempting_, Knuckles' voice murmured before the switch back again took place.

* * *

_Two weeks later_

Liam leaned back. He'd decided to take Shadow's advice, and had moved the cavern's main tunnel to a rock wall near Tails' workshop. He hadn't had the trouble he'd been expecting, of people continually visiting just to see what they saw in the water, which surprised him - a rare thing for him.

He glanced into the water, and saw the same sight he always did. He didn't like it, but he was used to seeing it. He couldn't bring himself to believe, he could ever abuse his magic to the point of becoming it though.

Aqua had stopped by recently, and returned the amulet Liam had given him long before, the one he was meant to use when helping Silver. He'd re-tasked it, and given it back, now if Aqua tapped it, it'd let Liam know he wanted a hand.

Things were quiet now, so he let his mind wander, and see what everyone else was up to.

* * *

Eggman was furious. He couldn't do any work properly like this, and Metal Sonic was useless as he was. The security robot that was stuck in his body was hopelessly clumsy.

Still, they were making some progress. Maybe if he finally finished this machine, he could then somehow use it against Sonic. Maybe he'd even use it himself with Sonic, and see if he could damage the hedgehog's reputation.

Or Shadow, maybe. The ultimate life form, with the world's greatest scientist inhabiting it. Only a genius could truly appreciate it.

He went back to the machine, and shouting at everything. Or trying to. He decided Metal Sonic needed to be able to shout.

* * *

_Pop_.

"Hey Knuckles. Whatcha up to?"

"Listening to a psychic hedgehog do impressions of Sonic?"

Silver laughed and dropped down beside him. "I thought I'd stop by."

"You're too kind. I'm just trying to rebuild this old shrine a bit."

"I thought it looked like that, but you're not putting too much effort into it. You haven't even got up."

"I'm also practicing to see if Liam was right about everyone having Psychic powers."

"Done anything yet?"

"I gave myself a headache. Does that count?"

Silver laughed again, and shook his head.

"Mind if I help out?"

"I think I'd do better that way."

* * *

Shadow stopped outside Tails' workshop. Tails was outside anyway, working on the Tornado again. Like usual when he was working on something, Tails was completely oblivious to things happening around him.

His hand reached out from under the plane for a wrench. Shadow handed it to him.

Tails tried to sit up, and banged his head, giving a yelp of pain, then he finally got free.

"Oh, it's you."

"Well that's nice."

"Sorry. I was distracted."

"You look like you need a wash, too."

"Oh, that's just because there was a leak. It'll clean right out." As if to emphasize, he took out a cloth and started wiping some of his fur clean.

"So, did you try it?"

"Yep. I didn't get too far, but I managed it."

"See, what'd I tell you?"

"It's not as easy though."

"Just that you can Chaos Control at all is good though."

"Means I can keep up with Sonic too."

"Or overtake him?"

"Nah, I don't want him to get jealous that I can still do it, and he can't. He doesn't know I can do it yet, anyway." Tails finished cleaning himself off, and looked up. "You're looking better than usual."

"You were right, not being so serious all the time is good for me. I even managed to hang out with Sonic earlier. I let him beat me in a short race though."

"What for?"

"I felt like it. Besides, Silver was also right – Sonic's attitude is contagious."

* * *

Liam brought his mind back and smiled. He already know Sonic shouldn't be bothered. He and Amy were at home. She'd finally cornered him and gotten him to give in.

Everything was back to normal again. Just as it should be.

He felt a vision come on, and laughed when he saw what would happen. At least it'd get them all together again.

_Fin._


End file.
